Mike Woodson Press Conference After Indiana Basketball's 85-71 Loss To Penn State
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00:00 - Yeah, Coach, obviously you guys had a number of issues there.
00:03 Why do you feel you guys, with some regularity,
00:06 struggle with defending the three?
00:08 Other teams coming into this building,
00:10 getting, you know, eight, nine, 10,
00:12 today 12 made threes against you guys.
00:14 - Well, in the Big Ten Conference,
00:18 we have been guarding the three pretty well.
00:21 I mean, it's an indication that we've defended
00:24 the three pretty well.
00:28 I just thought tonight, second half,
00:31 we were so flat coming out.
00:33 I mean, something I hadn't seen.
00:37 I mean, I look at their first possession
00:38 that starts the second half,
00:40 and they got like, I think, three, four cracks at it.
00:43 Where we couldn't come up with loose balls, a rebound.
00:47 I mean, it was like we were a step slow.
00:49 And it's kind of disappointing,
00:51 because you play a good game against Iowa,
00:53 and then you come back and basically lay a egg.
00:58 - Second, Mike.
00:59 - I guess, Mike, talking about that second half,
01:01 did you feel like it was maybe a response
01:03 to their defensive pressure,
01:04 that sort of one, two, two press
01:06 that they were putting in,
01:07 and maybe just speeding you guys up,
01:08 getting you guys out of rhythm?
01:10 - Not really.
01:11 I mean, I thought we handled the press early.
01:13 Built the lead based on them doing the same thing.
01:19 I mean, we didn't have,
01:23 I think we had 13 turnovers.
01:28 So that's in the ballpark,
01:29 in terms of where we want to be at 12 or less.
01:33 So I didn't think the press really hurt us.
01:35 I thought defensively, our switching,
01:38 and recognizing, you know,
01:42 they run a lot of what we call ghost screens.
01:45 We just didn't handle them correctly.
01:48 I mean, we weren't up to touch tonight.
01:50 I mean, it just,
01:51 I thought we had good intentions when we started the game,
01:54 'cause we came out aggressive,
01:56 and it just kind of wore away.
02:00 - That effort in the second half,
02:03 I mean, do you want more fire from your guys
02:05 in response to that?
02:06 I mean, who are you looking to?
02:07 I mean, can you coach them out of that?
02:08 Or is that something that players have to recognize
02:11 and kind of show up and do it themselves?
02:15 - Well, sure, I want more fire.
02:16 I mean, come on.
02:17 Yes, I want more fire out of my guys.
02:21 They didn't fight tonight, the second half,
02:23 and that's kind of disappointing.
02:25 So we gotta go back to the work
02:28 and see if we can work our way back,
02:32 because, I mean, that's a game that,
02:34 I thought if we played well,
02:37 we had a legitimate chance to win,
02:40 and I thought we did play well early on,
02:42 and then we just had too much slippage defensively
02:46 the second half.
02:47 - Tommy, you're next with Mike.
02:49 - Mike, how much of that flatness is just energy
02:52 and effort and not showing up?
02:54 - Well, again, I mean,
02:55 I'm not gonna throw my guys under the bus.
03:00 They just didn't perform the second half.
03:02 They didn't.
03:03 They didn't.
03:04 They were flat as hell.
03:07 - Given what you're saying about the defense,
03:14 how much thought did you give to going back
03:17 to kind of a small defensive lineup
03:19 that's given you success over the last two games?
03:21 - Well, again, we were small at times.
03:23 When they took their big guy out,
03:25 we went with one big,
03:26 and we had small guys around them.
03:28 That wasn't the difference.
03:32 The difference was that we just didn't,
03:34 we didn't switch correctly.
03:36 We didn't do a lot of things defensively
03:37 that got us the lead early.
03:39 I mean, they didn't do anything differently.
03:42 And we just gotta be better over a 40-minute ballgame.
03:45 - Coach, have you kind of seen anything
03:48 that lends your team kind of susceptible
03:52 to those long runs out of the second half
03:54 that you guys have given up this year?
03:56 - Well, I mean, we've had our ups and downs
03:58 when it comes to that.
03:59 Ain't no doubt about that.
04:00 But, you know, again, you're not,
04:04 I look at the points.
04:06 You give up 85 points,
04:07 you're not beating anybody in the Big 10 doing that.
04:10 You know, that's just not us.
04:12 You know, I mean, you got a chance
04:14 when you're trying to hold teams
04:16 to 65 and under in the Big 10.
04:18 And when we've done that,
04:19 we've been pretty successful.
04:21 - Mike, when you look at the offensive rebounds
04:26 Penn State had or some of the turnovers you had,
04:28 it feels like at times it's just a waning focus
04:31 from your squad.
04:31 What do you feel like leads to those moments?
04:34 - Well, again, I mean,
04:36 the course of a game you have breakdowns.
04:37 And I thought tonight,
04:40 the fact that we were flat,
04:41 we just didn't have anything going the second half.
04:43 I mean, they dictated everything from the very beginning.
04:47 And once we fell behind,
04:49 it was just tough to get back.
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